A survey of 600 Denver residents released Thursday concluded that nearly half of Denver adults gave money to panhandlers in the past year, with an average donation of $1.84.
Of those who gave, 26 percent said they did so at least once a month.
The study, commissioned by the Downtown Denver Partnership’s Business Improvement District and the City and County of Denver’s Office of Economic Development, said that the contributions totaled $4.6 million last year.
“The numbers are staggering,” said partnership president Tamara Door.
The partnership’s stance is that people should donate to charitable agencies, not panhandlers.
The $4.6 million number is based on the survey’s finding that 42 percent of Denver’s roughly 447,000 adult residents give an average of $24.58 to panhandlers annually.
However, several panhandlers said they had seen only a tiny fraction of that amount and were skeptical of the figure.
“I’m lucky if I make $10 per week,” said Bill Pridemore, who lives in a subsidized apartment near downtown.
By late Thursday morning, Pridemore had made $2 sitting in his wheelchair on a corner of the 16th Street Mall.
Pridemore, 61, a disabled former paper recycling plant worker, doesn’t carry a sign and refuses to ask for money, choosing instead to panhandle in silence two or three days a week.
Denver city ordinances prohibit aggressive panhandling, such as cursing, threatening or touching. Panhandling is also outlawed in certain locations, including near public telephones and automated teller machines and in front of building entrances.
City Councilwoman Elbra Wedgeworth, whose district includes the 16th Street Mall, said she was exploring ways to crack down on panhandling.
Her goals include finding a place for a 24-hour shelter for people picked up for panhandling and prohibiting sitting or standing for long periods near businesses.
“I’m totally committed to working on this situation,” she said. “It’s a quality-of-life issue.”
While begging is barred on street medians, it is not necessarily prohibited on street corners, and according to Denver police officer E.J. Valerio, “we really don’t do anything to them unless they are aggressive.”
Moreover, panhandlers in Denver aren’t always homeless. John Parvensky, president of the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, said only 10 percent of Denver’s homeless population panhandles regularly.
“It’s really the last thing they want to do,” he said. “It’s very degrading.”
Many cities struggle with panhandling. The Atlanta City Council passed an ordinance this week that bans verbal begging within a 70-block district that includes most of the city’s largest hotels, its convention center and many tourist attractions.
Panhandling could affect Denver’s recovering tourism and convention business, said Richard Scharf, president of the Denver Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau.
“We sell Denver as an experience,” he said. “If people perceive us as unsafe, they’re not going to come back.”
Panhandlers “make it a little scary, especially at night when you’re not sure what areas are safe,” said Linda Welch, a real estate broker from Portland, Ore., who was attending a Re/Max conference at the Colorado Convention Center. Panhandling in Denver seems on par with what she experiences in Portland, she said.
A similar survey on giving patterns released in 2003 in Calgary, Alberta, found that 35 percent of its 1 million residents gave to panhandlers, according to Todd Vitale, principal at Vitale & Associates, the Denver research firm that conducted the study. The Denver study was done over two nights in late June and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Panhandling isn’t just a downtown problem. According to the survey, 27 percent of respondents said they most often notice panhandlers downtown, compared with 22 percent who said Speer Boulevard and 13 percent who said Sixth Avenue.
In announcing the survey results, leaders encouraged Denver residents to give money to the Mile High United Way or other local charities that work with panhandlers and the homeless.
“We’re asking that the community work together not to give temporary handouts on the streets, but to invest in long- term solutions to getting people off the streets and helping people access the resources they need to live productive lives,” said Mary Buckley, director of business development for the city’s Department of Economic Development.
In May, Denver officials unveiled a 10-year, $122 million plan to end homelessness that calls for developing more transitional-housing units and expanding support services.
Staff writer Karen Crummy contributed to this report.
Staff writer Julie Dunn can be reached at 303-820-1592 or jdunn@denverpost.com.
Staff writer Annette Espinoza can be reached at 303-820-1655 or aespinoza@denverpost.com.
